By CompuBox

As was the case in their classic first fight, the rematch was a tremendous action fight whose result was determined by Leo Santa Cruz's superior volume (88.4 punches per round to Abner Mares' 77.6) and better jabbing (28.9 attempts/8.0 connects per round to Mares' 31.1/3.4).

The final round saw a combined 224 punches thrown, 77 total connects, 72 landed power shots and 103 attempted power punches by Santa Cruz, a personal best for this volume-punching specialist. Scoring: 117-111, 116-112, 115-113 SC.

In their 2 fights, Santa Cruz landed 730 of 2115 punches, while Mares went 434 of 1908. That's 1164 combined landed and 4023 combined thrown punches for the two warriors.

Leo Santa Cruz retained his WBA belt by earning a unanimous decision victory over Abner Mares on Saturday in a rematch of a 2015 featherweight title fight.

Santa Cruz improved to 34-1-1 with 19 career knockouts by winning on all three judges scorecards, 115-113, 116-112, 117-111 at the Staples Center arena.

Santa Cruz won despite suffering a cut over his left eye which was the result of a head butt from Mares in the eighth round. The cut bled for the remainder of the fight but didn't appear to bother Santa Cruz much.

The pair fought once before on August 29, 2015 as Santa Cruz also won that one but by a majority decision.

After that victory, Santa Cruz actually lost the title to Carl Frampton in July 2016, but regained it back in January 2017.

Santa Cruz said he wasn't going to be slowed down by the cut over his eye.

Santa Cruz also said that he wants his next fight to be against Gary Russell for the WBC featherweight title.

Mares, also of Mexico, drops to 31-3-1 (15 KOs) as he pushed for a third fight between the two.

On the undercard, WBC super welterweight champ Jermell Charlo successfully defended his belt for the third time, by flooring Austin Trout twice en route to a 12-round majority decision.

Charlo improved to 31-0 overall, while Trout fell to 31-5.